Starting anew in a world of silence
STEPPING into the vortex of a world of silence is no easy feat for someone who one moment was enjoying music and the next had to learn to read lips, communicate in sign language, and navigate in a world without sound.
Twenty-five years ago, Vuyile Wiseman Baliso, an assistant director in the Department of Public Works in the Mthatha regional office and chairperson of the Eastern Cape branch of the South African National Deaf Association (Sanda), woke up to a changed world. He had suddenly become deaf.
This transition from a world of bustling sound to a world of silence happened all too quickly for Baliso – within the space of days following a short illness which saw him admitted to Tygerberg Hospital.
The illness put him in a three-day coma. When he awoke, on his 16th birthday on September 13, 1990, he discovered he could not hear.
Baliso recently celebrated his 41st birthday and 25 years of deafness – a milestone, which each year falls in Deaf Awareness Month.
“It was very painful and unbelievable at first, and I had depressing thoughts,” Baliso said, recalling the day his life changed.
“At first, I didn’t know I was deaf as I was still weak. However, the doctor noticed I wasn’t reacting to questions and raised his voice five times,” he said.
Baliso said he was “shocked and surprised” at the news. The shock soon gave way to anger and depression as he struggled to cope with this sudden, life-changing event.
“I just could not accept it, but some doctor brought me a lot of reading material about losing hearing and deafness, and how to live after this diagnosis,” he said.
The hospital appointed a social worker to assist Baliso in understanding what had happened to him, and who arranged for him to complete his schooling at Filadelfia Secondary School for pupils with special needs in Soshanguve, Pretoria.
He had passed Grade 9 at his previous school, but had to repeat the grade as all subjects were new to him. “It was a new start,” he said.
After two long years of living in denial, he finally accepted his deafness.
Baliso’s moment of acceptance came when he befriended other deaf people at his school and discovered they shared similar life stories.
Baliso said: “It dawned on me that I was not alone.”
Highlighting how his deafness initially left him reeling, he reminisced about music. “I miss music a lot. When I could hear, I loved gospel and reggae,” he said.
It didn’t take Baliso long to master SASL (South African Sign Language) soon after starting school at Filadelfia. “The guys taught me immediately at school how to use the alphabet. It took me three months to fully grasp it,” he said.
Baliso doesn’t wear any hearing devices because they don’t benefit him. He communicates verbally and through sign language. He also has access to an interpreter who helps him “perform his duties to maximum capacity”. The theme for this year’s Deaf Awareness Month is “With Sign Language Rights, our children can”.
Baliso said it means that deaf children, who have access to equal education and opportunities provided to them in SASL, can make it in life.
Deaf Awareness Month, he said, is important for increasing awareness about deafness and how to support people who suffer from hearing loss.
“It is important to make sure that the needs of deaf and hard of hearing people are met because we are building a broader society and no one should feel neglected,” he said.
Baliso has a National Diploma in Accounting from Tshwane University of Technology and a B.Tech Degree in Business Administration from the Central University of Technology in the Free State. – ANA